We may think that self-love has to come before self-care because if you only love yourself, then by default you will practice self-care. However, the process of loving yourself may require much more than just waking up one morning, looking at yourself in the mirror, and telling yourself how valuable you are.
The concept of loving yourself may be a foreign subject to you, and if so, it is not that easy and simple as repeating affirmation phrases for yourself each morning. In fact, many people require therapy work to begin to know and learn how to love themselves. Self-care cannot wait for that to happen so instead let me tell you three things you can do to work backwards. In other words, practice self-care and by doing so, you can be led to discover your self-love. Below are three self-care tools that can help you get on that journey into self-love.
Surround Yourself with Kindness
Practice one self-care activity that is based out of kindness towards yourself by surrounding yourself with people that are good for you, good friends, mentors, and others that you find inspiring in your life. Self-care involves nourishing yourself with good friendships. Therefore, take on activities with people that have these qualities and that show you lots of love and support. Surrounding yourself with people that lift you up and love you will allow you to head towards self-love. You can enlist a self-care partner to join you on this journey!
Move Your Body
Engage in one physical self-care activity such as walking or practicing some kind of movement. Moving your body, will remind you of how important your physical health is and it will steer you in a way that will help you identify a glimpse of that self-love all while practicing self-care.
Find Your Value
Write down something that you value about who you are as a person. Once you identify this value, read it out loud and repeat it to yourself daily. This is a self-care practice that allows you to get to know who you are and that my friend will help lead you to a road of achieving self-love.
If you want to know more and are in need of a self-care ritual or simply need to refresh the ritual you currently have, sign up for the 7-Day Self-Care Ritual Refresher Mini Email Course. Short on time and prefer to listen to this while driving or working around your home? Head on over to the Self-Care In Pink Heels Podcast and listen in!
Now remember that if your struggle with self-love involves something deeper and painful, please seek out the help of a mental health professional in your area. Visit my therapy and counseling page for further information.
